The Redwood Library holds some unique manuscript records of early Rhode Island and the John Carter Brown Library holds seminal works by Roger Williams, Rhode Island's founder and innovator, as well as materials relating to religion, native peoples, conflicts with native peoples and the British government, boundary issues, business, daily life, and education. THE REDWOOD LIBRARY AND ATHENAEUM is one of the first lending libraries in America, housed in the oldest lending library building in the country. Founded in 1747 by forty-six proprietors upon the principle of "having nothing in view but the good of mankind," its mission continues over 265 years later. The Library's core collections include the original collection of 1522 volumes gathered by the first proprietors and printed materials related to the history of Newport and Aquidneck Island that far exceed the collecting scope of any other regional cultural institution.

THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY is an independently administered and funded center for advanced research in history and the humanities, founded in 1846 and located at Brown University since 1901. Housed within the library's walls is an internationally renowned collection of primary historical sources pertaining to North and South America from the time of its discovery by Europeans (ca. 1492) until the end of the colonial period (ca. 1825).